Prenylation of Natural Products: An Overview

Natural products with varied functional attributes are available in large abundance in nature. Nature has been an infinite repository of resources leading to drug development, discovery of novel chemicals, pharmacophores, and several invaluable bioactive agents. Natural products play a critical role in modern drug development, especially for antibacterial and antitumor agents. Their varied chemical structure, composition, solubility, and synthetic pathways bestow upon them a high level of diversity. Prenylation is a covalent addition of hydrophobic moieties to proteins or any other chemical compounds. Generally, the hydrophobic moieties are farnesyl or geranylgeranyl isoprenyl groups. Prenylation of flavonoids, alkaloids, terpernoids, etc., leads to gain of varied functionalities to the natural products in addition to the already existing functions. The ever-increasing need for the discovery of new drugs finds a new avenue through the prenylation of natural products. Cell-free synthesis of the prenylated natural products can be seen as a new alternative for the natural synthesis, which warrants time-consuming isolation and purification techniques.